Anniversary / Remembrance - Words & Phrases - English Addict 241 - 🚨LIVE CHAT🚨 - Sun 19th March 2023

Come on, man.

You can tell that Easter is on the way because now

we have hot cross buns for sale in our favourite tea

room here in Much Wenlock.

Apparently, we are the first ones to try them.

So here is

a fresh cross burn, which I'm not going to sample live for you.

Hmm. Oh, my goodness.

It's so fruity and lots of cinnamon as well.

My favourite ingredient.

So Easter is coming

and hot cross buns have arrived.

Welcome to today's livestream.

I hope you are feeling well.

We are back.

We are here. We are live.

Where are you?

Oh, there you are. Over there.

Can you see them, Steve? Over there.

They're watching us.

They're spying on us.

What are they up to? I wonder.

Hi, everybody. Hi.

This is Mr.

Duncan and also Mr.

Steve. Mr.

Steve is here after his little absence because he was busy.

By the way, we are going to take a look at what Mr.

Steve was doing last night.

He was performing in front of a big audience

and it was a lot of fun and I was there as well.

Hi, everybody. I hope you are well today.

If you didn't need reminding, you might need reminding that spring is in the air.

And look at that behind right now that is out of the window looking outside

and all of the cherry blossom has come out

and it is starting to feel like spring.

We had a very interesting walk yesterday, didn't we?

Yeah, we did.

Yes, we we decided to go in a nice sort of easy walk in that was sun was out.

It was beautiful. It was lovely. But

we got halfway

and then it started raining and it was a very, very long, prolonged.

Oh I like that.

That word prolonged something that goes on longer than you expect.

It is prolonged and it was a rain storm

and it was rainy, but it was very strange.

I didn't feel stressed by it.

I found it somehow therapeutic.

I don't know why it felt nice being out there.

The the the air, the fresh air.

I don't know what it is if you outside when it rains,

the air is very clear and it does something to you.

Even though we did get a little bit well, we had to shelter under a tree.

We got wet thankfully there was no lightning,

but yes, it was pouring down.

There were floods when we got into when there were floods all over the roads

and big puddles and but we dried off

nicely in the tea shop.

Yes. So we went through we went for a cup of coffee

and we had a hot cross bun as well.

Very nice.

And if you needed reminding that Easter is coming,

I think it's actually on April the ninth.

The 9th of April for us is Easter Sunday.

Of course, we will be with you on Easter Sunday.

As long as nothing happens between now and then,

I suppose we should address the thing that has happened this week.

Sadly for those who don't know, my

my mother passed away on Thursday

after a long illness suffering from Alzheimer's.

And Thursday morning, sadly, she passed away.

And I have to say it was it was not not good news.

And I suppose now I feel I don't know what the feeling is.

It's very strange.

I think everyone faces these this sort of situation in a different way.

Some people are quite distraught, some people feel numb.

And I suppose that's one of the feelings that I have.

I feel slightly numb from it.

But also, and this is going to sound weird to some people, I feel strangely relieved

because I always thought

that for the past three years my mother was suffering.

It's not a very nice situation to be in.

If you see someone who is suffering from Alzheimer's

or dementia, it is quite

heartbreaking because you do lose that person

even though they are still they are still alive.

So sadly, on Thursday my mum passed away

and now we are arranging the funeral and all of the things to go with it.

And if you needed irony today,

it's also Mother's Day here in the UK.

Of course we both lost our mothers. Haven't we missed it?

So both motherless.

So six months ago, six months ago, Steve lost his mum.

And here we are six months later also talking about my mum.

But I think.

I think with your mother it was a little different because it was centred.

Yes, it was relatively sudden.

So a bit more of a shock

for yourself.

Of course we've had a few sort of false alarms when we thought your mother was

basically on a deathbed, but then she recovered again,

which often happens with people with Alzheimer's.

But yes, sad day for both of us, really.

But we want to be cheered up. Yes.

Well well, this is where I want to thank you.

Now, if you are lucky enough to have someone in your life, a friend

or maybe a relative or maybe a partner, someone

who is there for you, all I can say is you are very lucky.

And I feel that I'm lucky because I have Steve, who was really, really good.

And last night, as you were with me, Mr.

Duncan. Yes.

Like once again last night we went out.

Now, I didn't feel like going out, but Mr.

Steve is in a show and I couldn't resist.

I thought, No, I'm going to do it.

I'm going to go and see Mr.

Steve in his show, because you put a lot of work into it because you had to do it all very quickly.

I did for this one.

And I have to say, it was a wonderful experience.

I came away feeling really happy.

I had a smile on my face, Mr.

Steve said, You had a big smile and it was fun seeing Steve perform.

We might have a little look at this now.

Would you like to see Mr.

Steve performing on the stage?

By the way, we are looking at anniversaries today

because for me it is a big anniversary as well.

Everything is happening today on the 19th of March,

everything, all sorts of things are going on.

We have anniversaries, but last night we went to see Mr.

Steve in a very unusual place, a very strange place.

It used to be the place where Mr.

Steve was performing last night, used to be a court house,

and all of the original fittings are still there.

So the court house still actually exists, even though it's not used anymore.

I think they often use it for weddings.

So there it is.

So, so I arrived early with Mr.

Steve and you can see there are a few of this.

Brian may look from Queen.

Isn't that nice? It's very nice that Brian May came.

Is that

and you might spot Mr.

Steve Sadly I can't play the sound because of well you know

copyright strikes and all of that on YouTube but there is Steve singing.

But I must admit the building that you performed in

was very unusual because it was standing on stilts.

Yes, it was raised above the ground.

And there he is looking so happy.

And I have to say, your smile last night.

There it is.

It made it really warmed my heart.

So. Yes.

So the first half just those other people know the first half is was a concert.

So we were in I was wearing a black shirt.

The second half was Gilbert and Sullivan.

Trial by jury. Everybody knows that.

So it's a very short play as well, a very short performance, 40 minutes hence.

And strangely enough, it is all about

somebody now being sued,

which is an interesting concept.

So that's what I was going to mention.

The strange thing is this is an old courthouse

and this part of the show was set in a courtroom.

So I thought that was amazing.

Yes. And yeah, that's in the court.

And it strangely enough, the court case is about

somebody who

was supposed to get married to a lady.

And so they got engaged

and then he broke off the engagement.

Naughty.

And up until the 1970s,

you a woman could sue

the man if she broke off an engagement.

Oh, I said you were allowed because you'd sort of promised that you were going to marry this girl.

You were engaged.

But if a man was to break it off, the woman could take the man to court.

And for compensation for damages.

So that's quite interesting.

So if you promise yourself to someone and say, I will

marry you, it's a sort of contract.

It was less like a like a contract almost.

And until I think it was 1970, even in this country,

if a marriage is broken off by the man, then the woman could sue for damages.

Credit financial compensation doesn't happen now.

And this was written about 1870. This particular

and I had to dress up to look young,

hence me wearing that particular outfit.

Normally he's in a smart suit, but we decided to do it some kind of kind of tell

a story about when you turned up for the one of the rehearsals.

They didn't recognise you.

They thought you were some young person.

Yes, it was.

Obviously, if I went to a normal rehearsal board,

they think, you know, you're probably in your fifties or something.

Turn up with a with a baseball cap on and an A sports top.

And suddenly.

Whereas Steve we can't start yet.

He's not here yet.

I'm here because I hadn't seen you because I didn't Didn't this group didn't know me.

I didn't join them two weeks ago.

I said, So Steve, what Steve actually did was step in

because one of their members had I had had dropped out.

He couldn't do the show.

So Steve very kindly offered to step in

to that man's place in his stead, because I Yes, because I've done this role before.

This was in Bridgnorth, a town called Bridgnorth,

which is only 20 minutes drive from much Wenlock.

So you can look that up if you wanted to look up Bridgnorth town hall

or yes, if you were interested, you would be able to see this fairly unique building.

There's only two of its kind, I think in the UK where it's built on stilts,

concrete stilts and the cars can go underneath.

But the strange thing is the stairs going in

are dreadful, they are really steep.

And we did notice yesterday as we were leaving, a lot of the elderly

members of the audience were having

a great deal of trouble getting down the stairs.

I don't know how they got up the stairs, to be honest, Steve,

but when they were coming down, a lot of them were really struggling.

So I would say that it is not

a very disabled, friendly though.

The buildings hundreds of years old and there was only one toilet,

so there were long queues for the toilets.

And I remember, yes, on Friday night was the opening night, the first performance.

And I needed to go to the toilets in the break room and I couldn't get in.

They had to. We had to wait.

They had to wait for me to get to the toilet before they could start the bar.

If I said, Oh, you can't start yet. I need the toilets.

That wasn't because it was last night. Somebody had to.

Yes, last night we were held up because one toilet and it was about 200 people there.

So it was quite a Well, that's the other thing I couldn't get over

how many people were there and it was such a good performance.

And you've never performed with this group before, is that right?

That's correct.

I knew one or two of the people in it, but I didn't perform with them before.

So it's interesting that Steve joined in with this group.

He didn't really know and it was such a lot of fun

and I was feeling unhappy.

I was feeling a little down after Thursday's event

and it scared me no end.

It was it was very infectious.

The whole the whole atmosphere, the performance and seeing Steve on the stage

dancing and jumping around, what more could you want?

And I remembered everything.

I didn't forget the No, forget it as well.

I forgot one little thing.

You might not have noticed though, but I think I think your voice is is really improved.

It was really nice, but I am paying for lessons.

So you should be doing something.

A lot of people are saying condolences for your

for your mother.

My wife was the first person to say it before you even mentioned it, in fact.

So thank you for all your lovely messages that you've sent to Mr.

Duncan.

And I was going to say something else then.

Yes, we've got some new people on as well, Mr. Duncan.

Oh, hello. And we've got asthma

from Pakistan.

Hello.

Declaring this is his first time on the live stream.

Hello, Asma.

So welcome to you.

Hope you're enjoying it so far.

And we've got the somebody who's calling themselves the Incredible Hulk.

Well, they might be like my brother.

You just just don't get too angry if we make you angry today.

Please don't.

Please don't tear off your clothes and run around the neighbourhood.

Alibaba is on as well.

Who said that from Vietnam?

I've known you since 2008. Wow.

So, yeah, we'll be talking about anniversaries in a minute.

Yes, because, well, first of all, today, the 19th of March,

I don't know why, but everything seems to have come together today.

All of these anniversaries.

So let's just say it is the 19th of March.

It is Mother's Day. Yes. Mothering Sunday.

It's also the anniversary of the beginning of the Iraqi war.

It's the day when the US and the coalition bombed Baghdad.

It's also the day on the same day that happened, by the way, 20 years ago.

I got on an aeroplane and went to China to work

and I stayed there for a few years working as an English teacher.

So on this very day, I don't know why, but everything seems to have come together

like a meeting,

an intersection point, a conflagration.

Is that the words? I don't know, I'm not quite sure.

But the conflagration, I think of the evidence that can correct.

Let's move.

I said, is cherry blossom behind, isn't Kristina asked.

Yes, And Jimmy's asked.

Yes, it's cherry blossom.

It's real.

By the way, that's out of the window right now.

And it's windy.

We've got a bit of wind, but it's quite mild, to be honest with you.

It's not it's not exactly cold.

And yes, that is the the cherry blossom that has come out over the past two or three days.

And I couldn't resist having it as the background apparently is cold in Italy.

So it's very warm here.

It's about 12 degrees outside or something like that.

I mean, I've been out in the garden in a T-shirt, so we're having better weather,

by the sounds of it, than Italy.

And where Claudia is it? So they're having a storm.

Hello, Claudia. When is Aries? So

there's all sorts of things going on all over the place.

So yeah, a place at the moment that is hot

is Spain, apparently is Spain.

Can you believe it?

I think it's 16 years since Spain

or parts of Spain had any heavy rainfall.

So the drought that is going on at the moment in Spain has been been going on for a long time.

And there was a very interesting news report

the other night talking about this, how all of the reservoirs and all of the water levels

of where where the drinking water is stored has has dropped.

I think it's about 25%

less water, which doesn't sound like a lot, but it is a lot

when you go for the whole total of all of the water that is there for drinking.

So imagine that here if we suddenly lost

25% of all of our water to drink.

So. So, hello, Spain. We are thinking about you.

We will try our best to send

some of our British rain to you.

We will try our best.

Well, uh, interesting.

You left Mr. Duncan. Yes.

I forgot what we were going to say.

My brains got blank.

I'm so.

I'm so tuned into into singing music at the moment is about the only thing I can remember.

Can I say hello to semi Hello.

Semi semi Bozkurt.

Who says you had a close friend in China.

Well I had a quite a few close friends.

Is that right, Mr. Duncan? Yes.

You went for a pizza, you went to Pizza Hut with them and he was Mr.

Jang. Mr. Jang way? Yes.

Oh, well, he is now living in Australia

and he has a successful career working in a hospital.

So now he is a fully trained nurse and he works in Melbourne.

So he lives there now.

So a long way from China and that's where he lives right now. So.

So yes, well remembered.

There is a video of myself in China having a pizza

with my friend Wilfred or Winifred.

Is he like to be known Zhang Wei?

And he was also the person who helped me when I was filming

some of my very early videos in China

way back in 2006.

But remember, in 2003, it's very strange.

Steve In 2003 there was no social media.

It did not exist in any form.

Isn't it strange?

Even in 2008 it didn't exist? Yes.

Most we often think that social media

was around for a very long time, but in 2003 there was nothing.

There was no YouTube, there was no Facebook,

there is no Instagram there.

There was definitely no Twitter and there was no Tik Tok.

Definitely.

I mean, yes, because this has come up recently, because if one or two

if you follow the financial news, I'm only going to do this briefly. Mr.

Duncan, you might have noticed there's been a few bank

failures recently which is causing some concern.

I think Silicon Valley Bank,

they're beginning to think that there is another problem

in the banking sector like there was in 2008, maybe possibly another crisis.

That's a surprise. Yes.

So what but what they're saying is that because of social media

now in back in 2008,

if you wanted to get your money out of a bank, which is what happened, then, people got scared.

They're going to lose all their money because the banks were going to fold.

Then you had to physically go into the bank.

So you saw lots of people queuing up to go and get their money out.

But it's happening.

But these banks have literally been failing almost overnight recently because people can now

get on social media and say, look, have you got money in this bank?

I'll get it out if I were you.

And then what can happen is you can transfer money now instantly on an app on your phone.

Well, yes, I couldn't do that in 2000.

So everyone suddenly tries to draw their money out.

And these crises, you know, people are a bit worried about it at the moment.

So that was in 2000 and 8008 with no social media.

I couldn't believe that.

I think now I'm going I'm going to slightly correct you, Steve.

Yeah, it's just a little bit.

But Facebook did exist in 2008, okay.

But it wasn't it wasn't the big monster that it is now.

And of course, there was still no Twitter in 2008.

I think all of these things were in the early stages.

But yes, you're right.

And of course, one of the big the big I suppose you could call this

an evolution is going from physical

to digital, which of course means that

instead of queuing outside the door of your local bank,

you can now just go online very quickly and withdraw your money.

And that's what lots of people were doing last week.

So one or two banks at the moment are all having difficulties.

I think it's not quite as bad, though.

They're saying it's not as bad as not saying it.

They're saying it's not as bad, but there's another bank in Switzerland, Credit Suisse.

I'm trying to kind of just say it's not as bad as 2008.

Not yet. So we're not here?

No, I'm just trying to stop doing what you were just talking about.

So we're not here to cause panic.

By the way, please don't blame us.

If any more banks go under over the next 24 hours and they blame us, it's not our fault.

So this is not like 2008.

Can I just make that clear, Rob? In case anyone not.

Yeah. Yeah.

Is anybody from Switzerland watching today?

Because you don't.

The last place you expect a bank to have problems is in Switzerland because you think of Switzerland

as being this very conservative, solid rule following rules.

Everybody is very conforming, everything's very conservative.

You wouldn't imagine that a bank in Switzerland

would have a financial problem, but it has been having problems for a number of years.

And very delicious chocolate.

Very delicious chocolate. Yeah.

So that's, you know, if if that goes and that would be good anyway.

But it's not.

Yeah. Again, we're not, you know, we're not fine.

Okay. So Steve.

Yes, this is, this is the moment where we stop talking about that subject

because we are we know nothing about it and we are we're not experts.

So please don't panic to please don't get just hear people now.

Well, tapping on the bank and listen to us, really.

I mean, please don't listen to us with that.

So say no, panic is on for a while, but

we can't stay because it's got Internet problems.

Yes. Okay.

So we welcome you here.

For how? Even if it's only briefly. Mm hmm.

So enjoy the rest of your day, does it?

Everybody asks. You must stay.

I want Tom says Tom Rock says he's going to the bank to draw all his money out.

Yes, Well, you joke about this, though. Good.

But Steve's joking about this, and this is what happened in 1997 with with Asia.

In Asia, when the Asia banking system collapsed, it was one person.

Do you remember George Soros started speculating

about the the Asian banking system.

And then everyone started pulling all of their money out of out of Asia.

And then the next day it was it was collapsing all around everyone. Yes.

So so it is it is true.

You have to especially in this modern day and age, you have to be very careful

what you say when you're influencing people to do things.

Yes. And the other Bruno makes a comment about

a about various banks.

Of course, what you know, what people don't realise and I didn't realise this,

is that you think a bank banks lent loan out money.

They they make money from loaning out money. So they get.

But you think that they would have and people put their savings in there

so you would think a bank would always have enough money in reserve.

Is that, is that called liquidity?

Yes. Well not quite that you would you, you would think that a bank say

all the people that save money in a by you would think that if they wanted their money back,

if you wanted your money back you would think that they would have plenty of,

you know, notes in the back somewhere in a big vault to pay everybody back.

But that's not how banking works, apparently, is it?

No, they never have.

They only have a practical fractional reserve banking.

So they only have they only keep a fraction of money in deposits

to pay back because they never expect everybody wants all their money back at once.

No, I would imagine on an average day that's a little bit like if you run a shop,

you have a very good weekend and then everyone comes back to the shop to return all of the goods.

And then suddenly your following week

will be nothing.

You will have no profit whatsoever because it will cause a huge dent.

So that thing you weren't expecting.

So I suppose it's similar to that, but no.

Well, you could at least pay those people back for bringing the money back.

But if everybody in any bank anywhere, what if everybody wants all their money back?

The banks never have enough money in reserve.

Yes, that's it.

And they hold a lot of deposits in in

what's the word I'm looking for in government bonds.

And they can't just cash those in at the moment.

Bonds have dropped in value anyway.

So this is telling you what's happened to that.

I mean, but I'm just saying that you would think that you would be able to get your money back,

but you can't.

If they don't, they don't have they never had the thing you just said. Yes.

Literally explaining it again.

It's like we're in some sort of loop loaning more money than than than they've got in savings.

Once again, there's no panic.

Please don't panic.

I never used to be like that. It's not all right, Steve.

It's not 2008.

It's not 2008 is 2023

at this moment in time, everything's not too bad.

Even though they are.

They are arresting Donald Trump, apparently on Tuesday.

Do you know the other thing I read find out today?

What did you find out today, Steve?

That Silicon Valley bank, do you know what they

they have literally they have guarantee that everybody

everybody who's got money is going to be paid back.

Now, normally you're only insured up to a certain amount.

Okay.

And after £250,000

is you're insured with in America with a bank,

anything over that,

then if the bank goes bust, you lose it.

But they've decided that they're going to give the money back to everybody.

And some people, some companies have got billions in there.

And you know why they're doing it.

Tell me, Steve, because a lot of the people

that have deposited money in that bank apparently.

Oh, wait there a second.

This is not conspiracy theory of conspiracy.

No, they they are.

They are they donate money to political parties.

Well, yeah.

So they're bailing them out.

Okay, Steve, they've got to stop.

It's it's tight.

No, no, no. That say, well, it will leave.

That will be true.

It will leave that for the rednecks. Yes.

This is a tape. Mr. Didn't mention a conspiracy theory.

That's the.

Okay, we're not we're not here to do that.

I do that because that. Oh, helping out the government.

Yes. Well, surprise, surprise. Exactly. Yes.

Are you surprised, Steve? Yeah.

Have you heard that apparently people in government as are corrupt?

I'm shocked.

I don't know about you, but I'm really shocked to find out that Bruno makes a funny comment.

Is you lend banks your money with virtually no security.

But when you go to a bank, they chain their pens to the counter so that you can take them.

Yeah, well, that's true.

I think I think Jerry Seinfeld did a bit about that.

Yes. They can't even give you a pen.

Oh, but then that's because people would just keep stealing them.

They would they would probably have a huge loss on pens

that they have to keep giving out all the time or putting on the counter.

So I can understand that anyway. Right.

We've got to teach something.

I think.

I think it's very good that banks are putting their pens

on chains, not that they need to nowadays because no one goes into the bank.

We don't have a bank now in much Wenlock.

We don't have you. Yeah, we don't even have a bank.

We used to have three banks and much

Wenlock, Barclays, Lloyds and

the other one

which I can never remember the name of, but they're all gone now.

Gone? Yeah. We've got a cashpoint. That's it. Yes.

If people aren't going to banks anywhere, they're doing it all online or on their mobile phone.

So I don't know how elderly people manage

because I would imagine that that would have been a good thing for them.

Or it's okay.

It is.

It cannot be helped by Penny, stop tapping it.

You're getting very, very annoyed.

Oh, no, I'm not.

Steve has this habit.

You can't see this.

He has a habit and he just taps his pen up and down while I'm talking to me.

And I'm trying to sort of present.

And he's like, going,

Well, it shouldn't be so easily distracted. No.

Something I discovered recently about banks.

Mr. Duncan, if you want to withdraw money now,

I need substantial amounts of money.

So you want to buy something and you wanted to draw a thousand, but you can't do it online anymore.

Okay?

You have to do it through the through the app on the phone.

My bank told me they wouldn't let me do it.

Well, I will tell you why that's so, because they invest

millions and millions in apps.

All of these banks and all of these big companies, they put lots and lots of money

into these phone apps to actually develop them and run them. So.

So there is someone somewhere who has to operate all of that.

It's a bit like having a website, but much more expensive.

So if the customers don't use those apps, they are basically wasting money.

So that's the reason why they always try to push you towards

using the applications on your phone for your banking and anything, to be honest.

So everyone has an app nowadays.

We don't by the way, we don't have an app, do we?

Well, I've had to have an app.

Oh, you mean for this?

Yes. This thing now, for what we did.

Yeah, I was in need.

An app for people to the all of all of the big English teachers now have their own app.

Oh, maybe you should get one.

Well, I can't afford it.

It costs, I think to go round in circles.

It costs a lot of money to have an app

made for you and then run it because you have to pay monthly

for the app to be run so much like a website.

So it's expensive.

But yeah, I phoned up the bank and said because I was trying to draw some money out

and they said, Oh no, you've got to do it on an app on the phone.

And I said, Well surely that's less secure than me going on to my laptop at home

and transferring money that they said, Oh, now you've got to use the app.

So I had to, if my, you know, I would have thought the app on the phone was,

was far less secure than the me going on my own laptop at home.

Yeah.

Well it's double tap, you have double ID now

so so you have to have your, your bank account and your phone in front of you.

I think it's called two point verification now.

So you have to tell them you're there and then they send something to your phone,

which is really annoying because your phone is never nearby, is it?

No. Whenever you have to do that,

your phone is never nearby.

You have to then run around and try to find your phone.

So it is quite secure, but they want you to use it because they're paying

massive amounts of money for it.

So they have to show that it's it's useful to people.

Unfortunately.

Anyway, I didn't think we were going to talk about banks today.

I really did see what happens.

But there is something I would like to talk about.

We are talking about anniversaries, by the way.

We are only here for a short time today for obvious reasons,

and we will be going in about 20 minutes.

But today is an anniversary and I thought it would be interesting

to have a look at some words and phrases connected to anniversaries

that make sense when you think about it, anniversary words and phrases that worry.

I'm not going to give you lots and lots of words and phrases.

I sometimes get complaints about that.

So we're looking at anniversaries.

We often think of anniversaries.

Don't way I don't know what happened.

That's very strange. Just happened to my mum.

What happened that very strange. Not sure.

My computer just did something very strange and anniversary can be positive.

Such as a wedding or maybe a birthday.

Or it can be negative.

Something tragic.

And I suppose a year from.

From last Thursday.

So next year will probably be not not very happy, will be thinking of something

as well as you will be, of course, on September

the eight, is that right?

The eighth of the 10th October already.

Yes. No, September the eighth is the queen. Yes.

So there was another weird thing.

It was the queen on the on September the eighth.

And then your mother on the 10th.

So these things are always going to get confused. Now,

that's life.

It is.

And also the opposite as well.

So an anniversary.

I know what I've done.

I've just deleted one of my things accidentally.

Uh, I'm sorry.

I'm being a bit of an idiot today we commemorate Mr.

Steve.

We also remember him.

We pay tribute.

Oh, he's an interesting word.

We veneer eight.

Who have you heard of that before?

Of course I have. Mrs. Ingraham.

Venerate veneration.

Venerate something? Yes. He celebrated, don't you?

Well, it's kind of you pay respects or you honour.

So to venerate is more of a solemn remembrance,

maybe to those who fell during a certain period of war,

maybe the First World War, Second World War

and all of the other wars that have happened

and are still happening, I suppose, and we honour as well.

So I think honour is a nice word.

I have to be honest with you. I do like that word honour.

You honour someone or you on a group of people,

maybe someone who made a sacrifice in their in their life.

You honour their memory. Yes.

So I think that's, that's quite a nice word, to be honest.

And you might do that by going out for a meal, going to like my sister is today.

She's going to my mother's

graveside to put flowers down.

She's taking our family when we're not going today. But

just because it's impractical today.

But you know, you don't have to be there physically.

But my sister's going she's going to honour my mother's memory

and she's going to do that on my behalf as well.

And I'm pretty sure we'll be going over soon anyway.

So we haven't forgotten.

But it is Mother's Day.

And if your if your mother is still around, you are lucky.

Phone her.

Send her an email or an SMS,

send her a card or go round

and give her a big hug for us, please.

Rosa says.

Can we use paid tribute in a sentence?

Yes, you could say, right.

So somebody has died. You're all going out for a meal.

Maybe you're

going on the anniversary of somebody's death and you say, Let's pay

tribute to my mother.

Let's raise a glass and say to you, Mm hmm.

So you're you're paying tribute.

Yeah. That's how you do it.

Somebody would normally say, let's pay tribute

to a person or an event or something like that.

It just means that you're remembering something

and you're doing it in a sort of a solemn way.

Um, but you could be paying tribute to something

that's, you know, positive.

Yeah, but usually something negative.

Oh, tribute is often negative.

So we pay tribute maybe to a celebrity who has just died.

Maybe we we show some of their work or maybe we talk about that person's life.

So tribute is is something that you are normally paying

or normally doing as as a mark of respect.

So tribute or maybe, of course, I think sometimes you can have

pop music or bands they can form

and they copy the original person's music.

Yes. And we often call them a tribute band.

So it's not the original band.

It is someone who who maybe sounds like them

or sometimes looks like them, but it's not them.

So they are a tribute band.

So you pay homage. Hello, Tomek.

Hello, Tomek. Tomek is here.

Tomek is celebrating an anniversary as well.

Who today?

Five years at wherever he's working.

And I think that's probably today.

The mysterious place just celebrated my fifth working

anniversary where ever he's working at the moment.

And it's nice to celebrate

work anniversaries

and that pops up a lot on social media.

Please help celebrate such and such a person

five years at this company or ten years at this company.

And companies normally mark certain years, don't they?

Five years, ten years, 20 years.

And you wouldn't normally get some kind of award.

You might get a financial reward.

You might just say get a certificate at five years,

you might get some money at ten years and some more money at 20.

I remember when I turned 20 years thing, I bet £1,000.

Oh, okay. From the company.

That's nice. You should have stayed for another 20 years.

I know it's not much ready for 20 years, is it? Really? But.

But you should stay another 20 years and £1,000 at the end of it.

I think that's worthwhile.

I don't think they've got one for 30.

I don't think anybody ever, ever, ever stays that low.

Uh, yes, but.

But yeah, that's it.

So, yeah, it's nice to celebrate work, anniversaries, particularly if you enjoy working there.

So which most people don't, They probably, they probably mark the anniversary,

but they have a tribute to their lost freedom.

Maybe.

So a significant date or time is often remembered.

A life changing event might form an anniversary,

so that also might be something positive or negative.

Something that is life changing isn't always good, is it?

It can be a negative thing or a positive thing.

Talking of yes, for example, sorry, I was going to say a life changing event.

You could be.

It was a year ago that I had my serious car accident

over a year ago that I was stopped treatment for cancer or something like that.

It could be.

Yeah, it could be.

It could be a life changing event, as you say.

It could be something that you remember.

Yes, it was it was a year ago since I lost my virginity

again.

Tom says sorry, condolence.

The word condolence.

No, you don't.

You know, you're you're not talking about actual

condolence words said in actual days of death.

Yes. Well, it's when when a person dies.

Yes. You just say, oh, please accept my condolences.

Yes. It's you offering your sympathy, sympathy and kind words.

It's often said in a car.

It's not specific to

particular time.

Although if somebody had died and you were going to send a car, a condolence

card, you would want to do it within a few days yet.

So you don't send it a year later?

No, you wouldn't do it every year.

You would just send it condolences as if somebody had died

or someone seriously ill, usually when they've died,

that a pretty serious illness.

Yes, But I mean, I'm just saying if somebody just sort of caught COVID,

he wouldn't send a condolence card or.

But if they were yes, if someone was diagnosed with terminal cancer, would you send it in now?

You would probably still wait until they died.

Yeah. What?

I'm I'm sorry to hear that you're dying.

Catarina says yes, we can celebrate retiring.

I don't.

I don't think that's a card that will ever be made.

You could say

yes. Right. Fine.

That's it. Yeah.

Yeah. Thanks, Regina.

Sorry. Sorry.

Regina Gomez.

Okay, Sorry.

My hearing isn't very good today. Okay.

Well, yes.

It's not a conspiracy. Exactly.

That's how you exactly that.

Our topic was promoted ten months ago.

Oh, Uh, are you CEO

of that company?

Maybe you. Maybe you are. Yes.

I think that's.

That's one heck of a promotion. Yes.

Well, it's something to celebrate. Yes.

But you see, in two months time, you can celebrate

your anniversary of your promotion

to CEO of the company. Mm.

Uh, so there we go.

Yes, That'll be the anniversary.

Which just happens every year.

Anniversary? I'm in a weird mood today, Annie.

From annual every year, isn't it?

Yes, from.

From the word annus. Yes.

And a switch.

Which means it's the year, of course.

Which is when it's all comes from.

Oh, very.

It's very dry in Italy, apparently, as long as all the rivers are drying up.

And Italy as well as Spain.

Well, I suppose it's it's sort of the same sort of area, isn't it?

I think it is hot.

It's very hot around the Balkans.

Oh, I know the feeling.

I get very hot around my Balkans sometimes.

Yes. Giovanni We will always remember the anniversary of

Queen, the Queen's death.

So I'm not going to let us forget, to be honest.

I mean, we've got Prince Charles becoming king Charles, in a few weeks from now,

even though we get three days holiday, not that it makes much difference

to us, really, but there you go.

So, no, we're never going to forget because they're not going to let us.

And thus I will never forget my mother.

That's late because two days later, obviously, anyway.

And to make matters worse, I can guarantee you that at some point

the the the my mother passed will be on Mother's Day.

Yeah. So that's going to eventually happen.

So that day will eventually be on Sunday and it will eventually be Mother's Day

on the on the anniversary of that, you know, a date it is today at 14.

It is not.

It is the 19th night in the 19th.

Right. Okay I've been.

Do you know when you certainly when you get really busy with things, you lose track of the days

the last two weeks because I've been in two separate shows

I've lost all track of the days.

You know what the what day we were Monday, which, you know, I've sort of lost.

Does that happen to you?

Sometimes you forget what day it is when you've been so busy doing things and involved with things

and your normal

routine is upset so you do something differently on a different day?

Because I've been to and things like Saturdays we normally do.

Last Saturday we, I had a matinee performance, so that was in the afternoon.

So normally on a Saturday we'd walk into because that's our routine

for years, but because we didn't do that last Saturday,

I've lost all track of what the day's on, and I don't know what's happened to this last week.

It's sort of gone is vanished very quickly.

It's been well, let's just say it's been a hell of a week and yeah,

leave it at that to be the busier you are as time passed quickly.

Okay, Steve, we've got 8 minutes and I've got 145 photographs to show you. So

today is the

anniversary of me going to China, and I had to mark it somehow.

I had to make sure that I could celebrate that

as an anniversary, because 20 years ago,

we said goodbye to each other for a while

and I went to China and I have to say it went to see me first.

And then a year later I came back because I was missing

Steve so much and not because of anything else.

So how would you like to see this photograph?

Steve Look at this.

This is the first photograph I took after arriving in China.

I was in Beijing and I was walking around near

a place called Tiananmen Square, got what they call it, Youth Days.

We didn't have Bluetooth.

We didn't have Bluetooth in 2003.

We couldn't just connect easily.

We didn't have the cloud that didn't exist in 2003.

So there I am, arrived in China

standing in Beijing and, really feeling

a little well, I suppose the the word is

shell shocked.

I was I was really sort of feeling a little bit disorientated if I was honest.

And another one arriving at the school where I worked.

Now, sadly, the school has gone.

It's all been demolished.

It's now a high rise apartment.

Well, it's not a big roadblock behind, you know, it's it's the entrance.

So in either side, they had these electronic gates that would open and close

and they would close them at night so you couldn't get out.

Oh, I see.

So eventually I that's the reason why I eventually moved out.

So the gap is either side.

If something comes across that, as I said, these big electronic gates will close you.

And there's always someone on the gate as well.

A gate is a little gate house. Well, they used to be.

It's all gone now.

It's all been demolished.

Skinny, you were there, Mr.

Duncan, And soon I will be skinny again. Yes.

I'm on my way to losing one stone of weight.

One stone? That's incredible. I'm on the way.

The trouble is, I'm losing weight as well because we've cut out chocolate and biscuits and cakes.

I'm losing weight now. Want to?

Anyway, back to my anniversary of going to China.

And there is the place you can see that you. Mr. Duncan.

Well, it is kind of it's well, I suppose it's

you know, just give me that.

At least I don't have anything else in his life.

So here is the place

where I worked, and you can see it's mountainous.

It's in a place called Inner Mongolia.

Lots of mountains and lots of power station, lots of pollution, lots of pollution.

Although the good thing was because

because you were in the middle of nowhere

and literally you were in the middle of nowhere,

it was it was actually not that polluted

because you were right near the Gobi Desert

and all of the air that would constantly blow

over and carry all of the pollution away.

So I wouldn't say if I was honest, I wouldn't say that

it was completely polluted if I were you.

And so I wouldn't say that that's not my memory.

Mr. Duncan Well, your memory is different.

I think you got used to it.

When I remember when I arrived, it was like some kind of hellhole.

But you left it there because you liked the people and you loved teaching

English to people who,

you know, were of.

Let's just say they weren't rich. They were poor people.

Yes. Okay.

But they wanted to learn English and.

Yeah, that's what you loved doing. Yes.

You could have chased the money in Beijing.

Yes. All of Shanghai.

Shanghai.

Shanghai was the place where all the Westerners, all the foreigners

went, all the people from the US

and Europe would all go to Shanghai.

That's where the big money was for teachers.

But no, I didn't.

I went to one of the poorest areas

in China to teach English, and there I am.

That is my first ever lesson.

That's me giving my first ever lesson way back in 2003.

And you can notice there's one thing you notice.

My writing on the blackboard is huge.

Yes, it's huge.

And all of the students complained afterwards.

They said, Mr.

Duncan, you don't have to write so large on the board.

So I didn't after that point, I never did it again like that.

So that way I'm my first class. I was really nervous.

I was very scared. And then later.

So this next photograph is later.

And you can see I'm a little bit more relaxed

in my writing on the board has improved.

It's much more neat and tidy.

I wonder what all those students are doing now.

Mr. Chen Yes, I hope they're doing something useful.

Yes, I'm very happy.

Well, they're with me. How can you not be happy?

You're with me.

You're in a room with me. How can you not be happy?

One thing I should mention, of course, is the food.

Lots of Chinese food. I did enjoy that.

But also, I suppose it's worth mentioning

other things, including junk food.

Look how slim I am.

Oh, my goodness. I can't believe it.

That's so young.

That's because I was young 20 years ago.

Yes, I was.

I was 38.

38, 38.

Oh, my.

If only you could be that age again.

If only I could be 30 again. But I'm not.

Unfortunately, it's that big.

I mean, it's a it's actually it's actually a character.

I think it's I want to say it's Chinese, but it could also be Japanese.

I never I never did find out what it was, but I was eating.

What am I doing there?

I'm eating some KFC because I did like the junk food.

And if you needed proof, here I am outside McDonald's

in Beijing.

I did a huge McDonald's in Beijing

and that was during one of my visits.

And it's still there.

Oh, I think it's still there. Yes.

I think there's probably one on every street corner now.

We test so many girls in that picture. Yes.

Well, most of my students were girls and they were almost,

I'd say, about 85% of all the people I taught were girls.

So that way I'm in the place I was staying and living.

And that was during I think that was during

one of the Chinese New Year celebrations.

And of course I did a lot of travelling

here.

I am dressed as a mongolian emperor, believe it or not.

We went there.

I remember going there, this is and this actually isn't the place.

This is actually in the grasslands.

The place you went to was a display area,

right, to re-enact the Mongolian grasslands.

But that particular photograph is actually in the Mongolian grasslands.

So that was actually the place in the middle of nowhere.

And if you needed

to see me in

an even more odd situation, here I am on a camel

dressed once again as an emperor.

I don't know why they seem to like dressing me up as kings.

Have they thought you were some kind of invader?

I don't know, but

I'm on a camel there.

I can't remember where it was because they used to take me all over the place.

Have you got the hump there, Mr. Duncan?

Have I got the hump?

That's the joke, V8'S.

Very good. As Mr.

Duncan got the hump.

Here I am in the most famous landmark.

When people think of China, they often think of Tiananmen Square,

Heaven's Gate, till neck looks unfeasibly long.

Mr. Duncan.

That's because I was so slim.

Then your neck looks almost as long as your head.

It does look as if my neck has been stretched.

Yes, it looks like you've been stretched. But now I thought.

That's me.

That's me 20 years ago, and now I'm going to cry.

I don't think I've seen these pictures, Mr.

Duncan. I think you have.

And of course, you know, I like motorbikes.

And I remember going to this shop, Steve and the guy that owned

the shop tried to get me to buy the motorbike.

Well, if he's gone to a motorbike shop, I know why.

Oh, can I finish the sentence?

He he said he would give me the bike for half price.

He's going to give me this amazing price if I would agree to,

to be on his posters and promote his shop.

So he wanted to use me, basically.

Well, you were getting a half priced bike.

Yes, but I didn't in the end, because I suppose

it's only fair to say that

the roads in China

are very dangerous.

Many people driving on the roads in China don't even

don't even know how to drive a car because they've never taken a test

ever.

So because of corruption as it is, they just buy

they just buy a license

and then they drive on the road with with

absolutely no training whatsoever.

And that's the reason why there are so many crashes, the highest

in the world, I believe in China, the highest death rate on the roads.

I used to see at least three car crashes every day.

Every day there would be a car somewhere

on the side of the road, normally with a huge dent in the front or the side.

And that's the reason why.

And I'm not being racist before anyone says, Now, Mr.

Duncan, you're being racist.

I'm not being racist because I lived there and I saw it and it's still the same.

It's still the same.

Alibaba says you've got to go to Vietnam because it's beautiful, peaceful, and the food is delicious.

I think we would like the Vietnamese food.

I think we would like what you said

because that's your favourite.

Yes. Type of food.

Yes. I'll be playing the the you know what today we're going in a minute.

Blimey. I thought we thought we'd have you know.

Well I am, I'm not feeling exactly like doing a two hour show today.

I'll be honest with you.

If. If I was honest with you,

which I am being.

Oh, by the way, we we also had our school had a training centre, and.

Can you believe it, Steve?

I was on the front and there I am.

I mean. Yes.

And everyone said that they knew who I was

because of that sign, so they actually put a photograph of me.

So this is one of the training centres that we opened

and I actually ended up helping to run it.

It's not flattering, very flattering photo. No, it isn't.

And I always I always said that to them.

I said, could you get a better photograph of me instead of just.

And they didn't tell by the way, they did not tell me that they were using my photograph.

So it was one day I went by by accident

and I looked and I thought, That's me.

They've put me on the front of the training centre and they didn't even tell me,

Oh, so now you get

Regina says our birthdays, also anniversaries.

Regina, Can you say Regina?

Because I think the subtitle might put something else.

Sorry. Regina.

Our birthdays, also anniversaries.

Yes, definitely. Happy.

Happy anniversaries.

Well, I suppose it depends how old you are.

Yeah. Yes.

Birthdays and anniversary.

It happens. Something that happens every year.

So, yeah, it happens every year.

It's an anniversary of something.

In this case, it just happens to be a birthday.

The anything could be, you know. Yes.

Do you do Did you do wheelies on your bike, mister? No.

But I know if you go on Instagram or Tik Tok, there are people

mainly and quite often I'm not I'm not judging anyone.

But quite often in Vietnam

and other places as well.

But they often do it in Vietnam.

They go along the road and they lift their front wheel up and go along on their back wheel.

I have to say

it does look pretty cool, to be honest, but I never did it

because I was always worried about my bike disappearing from underneath me.

So I never had a motorbike in China, but I did have one in the UK.

And to be honest with you, people in the UK also drive

in a crazy way as well, including him.

Can we say something about the Paris trip?

We will mention it briefly.

I'm I'm very behind with emails because I've had loads of emails.

Steve concerning, concerning my mum's death on Thursday,

so I, I'm literally under a pile of emails,

but yes, it's still happening.

So nothing's changed there because it's not until June anyway.

Yes, we'll send an email out this week to anybody

who we're going to form an email list group

and you know, to, to firm up the dates and everything for everybody

because we need to get organising that so that people can plan ahead.

So yeah, we'll do that this week

anyone that's interested in coming,

we'll put you on an email group and we'll talk about that.

Yes, you'll have to let me know first though.

So yes, you can't just go in the email group without getting in touch.

So send me your, your details

and then eventually we will have a group

and we will also form a WhatsApp group as well. Yes.

So eventually we will all be able to stay in touch,

but we are not talking about the trip here.

We're not giving any details here.

It will all be done away from YouTube for obvious reasons.

I suppose yeah, anybody that's already sent Mr.

Duncan an email expressing an interest in going

you will be we will be sending out some more communications.

Well I have already so everyone who's been in touch with me

I have contacted in return and told you when.

Oh right.

You've done that already.

Yes, I've done okay.

There's no email list required at the moment,

so. Good.

So yeah,

lovely. Alright Mr.

Duncan, I'll can put the kettle on. Well we're both going.

Oh right.

Okay. Yes.

So thank you for joining us today. It's been a weird one.

I was not sure if I was going to be here today.

I wasn't feeling great on Thursday and I wasn't feeling very well on Friday.

But then I went to see Mr. Steve in his show last night.

And I have to say, and I mean this, I really mean this.

I was I was quite emotional this morning.

And I said, Steve, I said, You do realise how much that was last night going out?

I could have stayed at home.

I could have sat and felt really sorry for myself.

But it was nice experiencing a bit of

socialising, being with people and watching

lots of other people have fun and joy.

So it was great.

Thank you, Steve, and thank you as well.

We will be back next Sunday, hopefully

in slightly better circumstances.

We can only wish. But of course, who knows?

Who knows what's going to happen next in this crazy world.

And Mr.

Duncan is putting on some short videos, aren't you?

So look out for those as well.

Some of you might have already seen them.

Some short email if you've already sent an email,

by the way, about the trip, you don't need to send another one.

But Christina says she's going to send an email.

That's it.

So if you are interested in meeting up in Paris,

if there is anything left of Paris, of course at the moment

it's all on fire.

I hope there is something left because of it.

Have you heard also all of the the utilities

have gone on strike as well, including the people that take rubbish away.

So the streets of Paris at the moment are piled high

with with garbage, really.

And apparently it stinks.

So maybe Luis can tell us

how long are they on strike for permanently.

Everything. Everything's on. Everything's.

Everything's coming. June.

Yes, Everything's coming to a standstill.

There are huge riots taking place.

And they what they want. They want to get rid of the

president.

And that's all I'm saying about that.

But I hope it's all back to normal by the time we go there in June.

That's all I can say.

Right. Lovely to see you on.

And read about you all.

And of course, and thank you for your lovely messages today and see you

at the absolute minimum next Sunday.

Yes, next Sunday we are back.

We will be here together for you.

Hopefully it will be it will be a little bit longer.

And of course, thanks for joining me a little bit of reminiscing

today, 20 years since I went to China

and also the start of the Iraq invasion.

On this day in Thailand, on a happy note, it's a strange, though.

What a strange coincidence. Yes.

Anyway, yes, you landed in the bomb, started, didn't they? Yes.

Right.

Have a lovely week, everyone.

And if you're celebrating any anniversaries, let us know and we'll talk about it next week.

Yes, definitely.

This is Mr. Duncan and Mr. Steve saying.

Thanks for watching. See you soon.

And of course, until the next time we meet, you know what's coming next.

Yes, you do.

Are you ready?

No.

ta ta for now.